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Kill the Boy
"Kill the Boy" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of Game of Thrones. It is the forty-fifth episode of the series overall. It premiered on May 10, 2015. It was written by Bryan Cogman and directed by Jeremy Podeswa. Plot Summary In Meereen Missandei watches over the wounded Grey Worm, who is still unconscious from his wounds sustained by the Sons of the Harpy. Daenerys and Daario Naharis wake over the deceased Ser Barristan Selmy. Hizdahr zo Loraq enters to extend his condolences. Daario suggests pulling back around the pyramid to use it as a base from which to eradicate the Sons of the Harpy. Daenerys instead opts for rounding up the leaders of each great family in Meereen, including Hizdahr. The leaders are brought to the catacombs where Rhaegal and Viserion are chained up. Daenerys' Unsullied push the leaders slowly towards the two dragons, who can be heard growling from the darkness. Daenerys states that good mothers do not give up on their children, they discipline them if needed, but never give up on them. She nods to Daario to push one of the leaders further forward. A stream of fire coming from Rhaegal sets the man aflame before he is torn apart and eaten by both dragons. Daenerys explains that the dragons will determine the innocence of the captives. Grey Worm wakes up later with Missandei sitting beside him. He asks if Barristan Selmy survived the attack by the Sons of the Harpy but Missandei shakes her head. Grey Worm thinks he has failed Ser Barristan, his men and Daenerys, but Missandei denies this. Missandei tells him he shouldn't be ashamed for being wounded given that he was ambushed and outnumbered, but Grey Worm says he is ashamed that he was afraid when he was stabbed. Missandei says that everyone fears death. However, Grey Worm says it isn't death he fears, it is the thought of never getting to see Missandei again that terrified him. Missandei is noticeably touched and kisses Grey Worm. Daenerys asks Missandei whether she should reopen the fighting pits. Missandei only says that she has seen Daenerys listening to her counselors when her own experience was lacking and ignoring them when she thinks they are wrong. Daenerys visits the imprisoned Hizdahr, who begs for his life. Daenerys tells him she has decided to reopen the fighting pits, but only for free men. She also says that she will marry the head of an ancient family of Meereen to forge a bond with the people of the city, and that she luckily has one of them on his knees already. She leaves a very confused Hizdahr to process that he will live, and that he will soon be Meereen's prince consort. At the Wall Sam reads a note from Slaver's Bay to Maester Aemon updating him on Daenerys's situation. Sam praises the courage of Daenerys but Maester Aemon worries about her safety because she is all alone, under siege, and with hardly anyone to guide her, while he, as her only living relative, is useless and dying thousands of miles away. Jon Snow enters to speak with Aemon in private. He needs the maester's advice on a controversial order that many of the Night's Watch will hate him for. Aemon tells Jon that half the men at Castle Black already hate him, but that he should trust in his command. He says that Jon will not enjoy being Lord Commander, but with luck, he may find the strength to do what needs to be done. Jon is told to "kill the boy, and let the man be born". Jon then meets with Tormund Giantsbane and offers to forge an alliance with the wildlings. He wants Tormund to go north of the wall and gather all the wildlings. He will open the gates for them and give them land south of the wall to settle down. In return, the wildlings will fight alongside the Night’s Watch when White Walkers arrive. Tormund is initially reluctant and to convince him, Jon opens his chains, freeing him. Tormund relents, and reveals that most of the wildlings are up at Hardhome. Jon offers him horses and men to bring the wildlings back. Tormund tells him that they’ll need ships to bring his people back, which Jon says he’ll borrow from Stannis. Tormund's final condition is that Jon accompany him as a guarantee that the wildlings will not fall prey to any traps set by the Night's Watch. The men of the Night’s Watch do not take news of the alliance well, citing the countless innocent lives lost due to the wildlings. Even Jon’s friend Edd rejects this decision, stating that the wildlings killed their friends Grenn and Pyp. Nevertheless, Jon decides to go ahead with his plan. In the library, Sam tells Gilly about his wish to go to Citadel and become a Maester before he was sent to the Night’s Watch, when Stannis Baratheon walks in. Stannis reminisces about how Sam’s father, Randyll Tarly, defeated Robert Baratheon in the Battle of Ashford. Stannis wants to know how Sam killed the White Walker and Sam tells him how he did it with a dagger made of dragonglass. Stannis muses that it is abundantly available on Dragonstone. Sam has been researching how dragon glass and how it can kill White Walkers, but hasn’t come up with anything new yet. Stannis tells him to continue his research and leaves. Later, Stannis tells Ser Davos that they will march toward Winterfell the next morning. Davos suggests waiting until Jon returns with the wildlings, but Stannis decides against it, as any delay improves the Boltons' chances. He also wants to take Selyse and Shireen with them, as he does not think they will be safe at the Wall, surrounded by criminals. The next morning, Stannis’s army with him and Melisandre at its head, starts its journey to Winterfell. In the North Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne, still pursuing Sansa Stark, arrive at an inn near Winterfell. Podrick thinks that Sansa may be better off at Winterfell now that she is far away from the Lannisters, but Brienne believes that Sansa will not be safe around the people who murdered her mother and brother - the Boltons. Their conversation is interrupted by a servant. Correctly suspecting that he is still loyal to the Starks, Brienne tells of her allegiance to Catelyn Stark and convinces the servant to get a message through to Sansa – her presence still being something of a secret, the old servant seems to gain strength from the idea of a surviving Stark. In Winterfell, Ramsay Bolton and his bedwarmer Myranda discuss Ramsay’s upcoming marriage to Sansa. Myranda admits her jealousy of Sansa, especially since he had promised to marry Myranda back when he was a bastard. Ramsay disregards Myranda’s insecurities, causing Myranda to proclaim that perhaps she will marry too. Ramsay is angered and violently tells her that she is his and she is not going anywhere unless she continues to bore him with her jealousy. He threateningly reminds her what he does to people who bore him, and hearing this Myranda swears never to bore him again. Meanwhile, Sansa’s maid carries a message to her. Consoling Sansa that she still has allies in the North, she tells Sansa to light a candle in the highest window of the Broken Tower if she ever needs help. As Sansa wanders around the castle, coming to the tower where Jaime Lannister pushed her brother Brandon out of the window, she runs into Myranda. Myranda puts on a friendly façade, talking to Sansa about her mother’s demise. To help Sansa “remember” how things used to be, Myranda leads Sansa down to the kennels, where she finds Reek, formerly Theon Greyjoy, asleep in one of the cages. Awoken by Sansa’s arrival, he just shakes his head, when Sansa calls him "Theon." He warns her that she shouldn't be down there. Seeing her childhood friend and alleged killer of her younger brothers in such a pitiful condition, Sansa angrily storms away. As Reek helps Ramsay get ready for dinner, he confesses to Ramsay that earlier that day, Sansa saw him in his cage. Ramsay, for his own amusement, makes it seem as though he’s going to punish Reek severely, before simply forgiving him. At dinner, Ramsay is initially well-behaved, toasting his wedding to Sansa, but is soon back to his old ways as he forces Reek to apologize to Sansa for murdering Brandon and Rickon. With much difficulty, Reek finally mutters an apology. He then suggests that Reek be the one to give Sansa away at the wedding, since he is the closest thing Sansa has to kin and Roose Bolton accepts the suggestion. Seeing that Ramsay is getting complacent, however, Roose has Walda announce that she is pregnant with a boy. Ramsay is clearly distressed by the news, which in turn delights Sansa. After dinner, Ramsay expresses his distress at the possibility of the unborn child jeopardizing his claim on the North. Roose shares the story of Ramsay’s birth; Roose raped a miller’s wife, who had married without his consent, and hanged her husband. A year later, she showed up with Ramsay, claiming that the baby was his. Roose nearly had her whipped and the baby drowned, but when Roose laid eyes upon Ramsay, he was convinced that he was his son and decided to keep him. He then reveals to Ramsay that Stannis has an army at Castle Black. Stannis plans to take the Iron Throne and the road to King’s Landing passes through Winterfell, which means that Stannis also intends to take the North. He wants Ramsay’s help in defeating Stannis, and Ramsay agrees. Amongst the ruins of Valyria As Jorah and Tyrion continue their journey to Meereen, and following Jorah's violent reaction to a previous conversation, Tyrion tries to salvage an at least civil relationship with his captor and asks where they are. As Jorah stands up to look at the foggy ruins on the horizon, Tyrion deduces that they are going to pass through the remains of Old Valyria, a shorter route to Meereen and one which pirates will avoid because of Valyria's reputation. Tyrion is apprehensive, but still excited to see the ruins of what was once the greatest civilization in the world. As they catch glimpses of domes, towers and aqueducts, Tyrion recites a poem about the Doom of Valyria, with Jorah joining in at the end. Suddenly, through the fog, they see Drogon fly into view. Although he had been hearing about the dragons for some time, Tyrion is still utterly gobsmacked to see one in person. Jorah is struck silent too, as Drogon is even bigger and more majestic than when he left. So distracted are they that they don't notice when the statues on a nearby aqueduct stand up and leap at the boat: they are Stone Men - victims of Greyscale so far gone that they have been sent to live out the rest of their lives in quarantine in the ruins. Jorah tells Tyrion not to let them touch him and fights them off. However, as Tyrion is tied up, he is cornered at one end of the boat with a stoneman advancing on him while Jorah battles more at the other end. Just before the stoneman is able to grab him, Tyrion rolls off of the boat and into the water to escape, where he is then pulled down by more stonemen under the water. An undetermined amount of time later, Tyrion wakes up and finds himself on a shore, seemingly saved by Jorah. After confirming to each other that they had not been touched by the stonemen, Jorah tells Tyrion that they can hopefully find a fishing village and get a boat soon, otherwise they'll have to walk all the way around Slaver's Bay to eventually reach Meereen. Tyrion seems up for it and Jorah goes to look for firewood so they can make camp. However, once out of Tyrion's view, he pulls back his sleeve to inspect the cracked skin on his wrist, confirming that he had been infected with Greyscale during the fight with the stonemen. Appearances :Main: Kill the Boy/Appearances First *Stone men *Master Eaton *Elboneno Deaths * Master Eaton Production Cast Starring * Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister * Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen * Kit Harington as Lord Commander Jon Snow * Stephen Dillane as King Stannis Baratheon * Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth * Carice van Houten as Lady Melisandre * Alfie Allen as Reek * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly * Sophie Turner as Lady Sansa Stark * Hannah Murray as Gilly * Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis * Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane * Michael McElhatton as Lord Roose Bolton * Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Bolton *with Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont Guest Starring * Ian McElhinney as Ser Barristan Selmy * Peter Vaughan as Maester Aemon * Tara Fitzgerald as Queen Selyse Baratheon * Owen Teale as Ser Alliser Thorne * Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm * Joel Fry as Hizdahr zo Loraq * Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne * Charlotte Hope as Myranda * Kerry Ingram as Princess Shireen Baratheon * Brenock O'Connor as Olly * Elizabeth Webster as Lady Walda Bolton * Brian Fortune as Othell Yarwyck * Michael Condron as Bowen Marsh * Stella McCusker as an old woman * Gianpiero Cognoli as Master Eaton * Raymond Keane as Winter town man * Ratib Asghar as * Peter Silverleaf as Elboneno * Davor Jozinovic as * Ivan Peric * Hadi Kermani * Tonci Banov Cast notes * 17 of 28 cast members for the fifth season appear in this episode. * Starring cast members Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish), Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), Conleth Hill (Varys), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), Dean-Charles Chapman (Tommen Baratheon), Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H'ghar) and Diana Rigg (Olenna Tyrell) are not credited and do not appear * Her absence in this episode marks the first ever time that Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) has not appeared for two consecutive episodes. Notes *The title of this episode is a reference to a prominent quote in the episode: Maester Aemon advises Jon Snow about growing into a man of the Night's Watch, how he must mature into it and make selfless decisions: "Kill the boy, and let the man be born." In the books, he specifies that this is the same advice he gave his own brother Aegon when he was crowned king. *This episode focuses extensively on plotlines at The Wall and in The North, which are becoming intertwined as Stannis Baratheon rides south to lead a new offensive against House Bolton, who at the same time are in Winterfell bracing for his arrival. Daenerys Targaryen's storyline in Meereen also appears, as does Tyrion Lannister en route to Meereen. Brienne of Tarth briefly appears because she has arrived in the winter town on the outskirts of Winterfell (a departure from the novels). **Correspondingly, House Lannister does not appear in this episode (as a political faction, led by Cersei, not including Tyrion anymore), nor does House Tyrell. House Martell and Dorne do not appear in this episode - nor do Jaime Lannister and Bronn, currently in Dorne. Arya Stark in Braavos does not appear. House Greyjoy has also not appeared so far this season. *This is only the fourth episode in the entire TV series in which King's Landing does not appear at all. The previous three were Season 1's "The Kingsroad" (because King Robert and Cersei were with the Starks on the road and had not yet reached the city), Season 3's "The Rains of Castamere" (which focused mostly on the Red Wedding), and Season 4's "The Watchers on the Wall" (which focused entirely on the Battle of Castle Black). *The manuscript that George R.R. Martin originally wrote for the fourth novel grew so long that he had to split it into two novels - but whose events occur simultaneously. The fourth novel, A Feast for Crows, focuses on events within the Seven Kingdoms themselves (particularly on Cersei, Margaery, and the political situation in King's Landing). The fifth novel, A Dance with Dragons, then backs up and covers all of the events set in the same time period, but occurring outside of the "Seven Kingdoms" proper: Jon Snow and Stannis Baratheon at the Wall (and the Boltons in the North), Daenerys in Meereen, and also Arya and Tyrion in the Free Cities. Martin pointed out that there are a few narrative parallels between events in different regions that are not immediately obvious as a result, i.e. he meant to intercut Cersei chapters in King's Landing with Daenerys chapters in Meereen, contrasting how each queen is challenged to hold their rule together. The TV series intercut this material, however, as it was originally conceived. Therefore, in the preceding episode, the rise of radical movements in both regions are presented in parallel - the Faith Militant in King's Landing and the Sons of the Harpy in Meereen. Conversely, this episode basically recreated the effect that the print version of A Dance with Dragons had: focusing on the Wall, Winterfell, Daenerys in Meereen, and Tyrion in Essos on his way to Meereen, while containing no material at all from the "core" territories of the narrative such as King's Landing and the rest of southern Westeros *Jon Snow mentions prominently in his dialogue with Tormund that (according to legend, at least) The Wall was built 8,000 years ago. This had only previously been explained in the animated "Histories & Lore" featurettes included in the Blu-ray releases, and characters have just loosely said that the Wall is "thousands" of years old. The creation of the Wall is what led to the divide between the Seven Kingdoms to the south and the "wildlings" - who are basically just anyone unlucky to be born north of the Wall. Thus the Night's Watch and the wildlings believe they have been enemies for the past 8,000 years or so. * : the lands immediately south of the Wall, meant to support the Night's Watch. It is a strip of territory north of Winterfell and Last Hearth. Stannis's remaining fleet is docked at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.]]Samwell Tarly argues that there is plenty of land that the wildlings can settle on in The Gift, the territory immediately south of the Wall ruled by the Night's Watch. Now that Jon Snow has been elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, he is technically the ruler of both the Wall and the Gift. **As Bowen Marsh points out, most of the villages in the Gift were deserted over the generations because wildling attacks killed or drove off the inhabitants. Bran Stark and his companions previously passed north through the Gift in Season 3's "The Rains of Castamere" - when Jon also happened to be traveling through the Gift, after passing back south over the Wall and then heading east back to Castle Black. Meera Reed pointed out in that episode that the Gift had a lot of good farmland but no one was living there, and Bran similarly explained that the region had become depopulated over the centuries due to wildling attacks. **The Gift appeared again in Season 4 when Samwell and Gilly went to Mole's Town, a small village south of Castle Black on the Kingsroad, but apparently the largest settlement of any size in the Gift. As recalled in this episode, Olly lived in a village in the Gift, but in Season 4's "Breaker of Chains" the wildling raiding band led by Tormund, Ygritte, and Styr attacked, killed his parents and everyone he knew, and only left him alive to warn the Watch to try to draw them away from Castle Black. *Ramsay mentions the upcoming wedding being praised "from Moat Cailin to Last Hearth". As seen last episode, Moat Cailin is the southernmost point in "the North", serving as the only gateway through the otherwise impassable swamps of the Neck (ruled by House Reed of Greywater Watch). Last Heart, meanwhile, is the northernmost castle-seat in "the North", and therefore, in all of the Seven Kingdoms. Last Heart is the seat of House Umber, staunch allies of the Starks. The lands of the Gift, which belong to the Night's Watch, are on the immediate northern border of House Umber's lands centered around Last Hearth (see map at right). *This episode marks the first prominent appearance of Bowen Marsh, with speaking lines (he appeared in the background in the Season 5 premiere but did not speak). He is the First Steward of the Night's Watch, while Othell Yarwyck is the First Builder, and Ser Alliser Thorne is the new First Ranger - all three are present at the meeting scene in this episode. Together they make up the command officers of the order and the Lord Commander's advisors. The appearances of Marsh and Yarwyck have a curious history in the TV series: actor Brian Fortune appeared prominently in Season 1 with speaking lines, as the Night's Watch officer who leads Jon and Samwell to take their vows before a weirwood tree. He was never identified by name, though Fortune said he was told that his character was Bowen Marsh. This was later switched around however: Fortune did not return in Seasons 2 and 3, and when he did reappear in Season 4, the scene he was in made it a point to prominently have Thorne address him as "First Builder Othell Yarwyck" - clearly establishing the minor retcon that Fortune's character was actually Yarwyck in Season 1. New actor Michael Condron was then introduced starting in Season 5 as officially playing Bowen Marsh. *Walda Bolton is not pregnant as of the most current novel - though Roose does remark to Reek at one point that he is concerned that if and when she does start bearing Roose children in the near future, it will cause strife as Ramsay will see them as a threat to his position as Roose's heir. **Legitimization of bastard children is granted rarely enough that there are simply no formal legal rules for how it impacts the line of succession - it is up to the discretion of the lord, and civil wars often result from such disputes. If a lord has a bastard son, and later has a lawful son by his married wife, the younger but lawful son is his legal heir. If that elder bastard son is later legitimized, however, his own supporters would say that he is now the heir because he is eldest, while others would argue that even a legitimized bastard ranks behind a younger but lawful son. Both Roose and Ramsay are aware of this, and as the writers explain in the Inside the Episode featurette, Roose is using Walda's pregnancy as an implied threat that Ramsay had better start behaving, otherwise Roose can simply name Walda's child as his legal heir at his own discretion. *Ramsay Bolton's mother is actually still alive in the novels, though she has not directly appeared. Ramsay lived with her for most of his life as a simple peasant, though eventually she urged him to go to the Dreadfort to seek out his birthright as Roose's son. In this episode Ramsay says that she simply died when he was an infant (some time after she brought him to Roose), so apparently the TV continuity simplified it so that Ramsay has been living at the Dreadfort for many years. **Oddly, Ramsay actually seems to care about his mother. This even extended to the point that he developed a warped fantasy interpretation of his own origins, that Roose genuinely fell in love with his peasant mother like something out of a fairy tale. In the novels Roose did not recall the story about how he raped the miller's wife to Ramsay himself, but mused about it aloud to Reek. He also callously observed to Reek that the miller's wife ultimately didn't turn out to be nearly as good of a lay as he had thought she'd be, she was hardly worth the rope he used to hang the miller, "so all in all it was a dismal day". The TV version moved the dialogue around somewhat: in the novels, when Roose is upset with Ramsay's growing cockiness and lack of restraint (publicly flaying alive lords who displease him), he bluntly says "All you have I gave you. You would do well to remember that, bastard" and that he had better shape up "before you make me rue the day I raped your mother." Then Roose departs with Reek, and explains to him the story of the miller's wife. *The TV series doesn't mention a detail from the novels: the Boltons often practice the banned practice of "First Night", in which a lord has the right to have sex with a commoner's wife on their wedding night. The miller and his wife therefore married in secret without Roose's knowledge to avoid him exercising this "right", though he stumbled upon them during a fox hunt anyway. First Night was banned in Westeros over two hundred years ago by King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, though a few unscrupulous lords such as the Boltons still try to exact it from their commoners if they think they can get away with it (Roose scoffs that he thinks some of the Umbers still do it in secret, as well as the poor mountain clans northwest of Winterfell, and on the isle of Skagos to the east, but this is unconfirmed). **Perhaps it is better that the TV series did not mention this: "First Night" never actually existed in the real-life Middle Ages, nor was it ever even alleged to exist at the time. It is merely a myth about the Middle Ages that was invented in modern times. "First Night" became particularly in vogue during the 1990s, when George R.R. Martin was writing much of the first novels and developing the Boltons, due in no small part to the prominence it had in the 1995 film Braveheart. Even when the film was released, medieval historians vocally complained that this was an utterly inaccurate portrayal of medieval society, and no such right ever existed, but nonetheless it became ingrained in pop culture perceptions of the period. Coincidentally, Rupert Vansittart - the actor who plays Lord Yohn Royce in Seasons 4 and 5 of Game of Thrones - himself appeared in the film Braveheart, specifically as the English lord who enforced the right of First Night on a Scottish peasant bride. *Roose says that when Ramsay was first presented to him as a baby he at first wanted to throw his infant bastard into a river, but then he looked at him and saw that he was his son. The novels specify the detail that when Roose looked at the baby Ramsay he saw that he had inherited his own distinctive Bolton eye color: very creepy pale blue eyes, so pale that they are nearly white, like the pupils are specs of dirt in ice (in the TV series, both Roose and Ramsay do have very pale blue eyes). Seeing that the babe had his eyes and was clearly his son, the taboo against Kinslaying stayed his hand. **This echoes how in Season 3, Tywin Lannister said that after Tyrion's mother died in childbirth, and on top of that the humiliation that he was born a stunted dwarf, he considered throwing the infant Tyrion into the ocean - but he couldn't, because Tyrion was a Lannister; the stigma against kinslaying also gave him pause. However, while Roose's comment about Ramsay is in the books, Tywin's line that he initially wanted to kill Tyrion in his grief was actually invented for the TV show - so if anything, in reverse order, the TV writers were probably inspired by Roose's later line to Ramsay when they gave similar dialogue to Tywin back in Season 3. *Stannis mutters under his breath "fewer" to correct the complaint that if the wildlings die there will be "less" of them to fight. This is a callback to how Stannis corrected Davos prior to the Battle of the Blackwater in Season 2: Davos said that without the fingertips on his off-hand he at least had four less fingernails to clean, and Stannis insisted "fewer". Stannis is a stickler for the rulers in all things, including proper grammar. *The exchange when Davos Seaworth presumes that Stannis's wife and daughter will stay at the Wall, but Stannis instead says he doesn't want to leave them there with so many former thieves and rapers, is apparently a nod to how this is a change from the books - in the novels, Selyse, Shireen, and even Melisandre in fact stay at Castle Black with a small contingent of Stannis's men, as Davos suggests here in the TV episode. *Word has reached even the Wall about Daenerys Targaryen, her three live dragons, and her conquests in Slaver's Bay. Maester Aemon is also shown for the first time hearing the news about her: as Aemon says, he is Daenerys's only living relative - her father's uncle. **It takes many months for news to pass from Slaver's Bay to King's Landing or the Wall, given that the messenger-raven network doesn't spread beyond Westeros to the lands across the Narrow Sea, so messages have to wait on ships traveling by sea. Aemon and Samwell can't be reacting to recent news about Daenerys (though the episode intercutting between the two storylines might give this false impression). Of course, the message Samwell reads mentions nothing specific from this season, only that Daenerys conquered Meereen and chose to stay there to protect the former slaves - which happened in the middle of last season. Time moves more slowly in the TV continuity than in the novels, at the rate of about one year per TV season. Therefore, as presented, it is entirely plausible that the news about Daenerys that Samwell reads is actually reporting on Daenerys's activities several months ago. **As Aemon explained to Jon back in Season 1's "Baelor", and again in Season 4's "The Watchers on the Wall" to Samwell, he was actually born "Prince Aemon Targaryen" but gave up his family name when he became a maester, and he later joined the Night's Watch. Aemon explained to Jon that he is a long-forgotten uncle of the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen. He became a maester because he wasn't the eldest son and heir, but after his older brothers died, there were some who offered the crown to him - he refused, citing his vows as a maester, and then joined the Night's Watch to avoid the political intrigues of the capital entirely. His younger brother Aegon V Targaryen then became king. **In the novels, Aegon V was actually Aerys II's grandfather, not his father. The Mad King was the son of Aegon V's son Jaehaerys II - making Aemon Daenerys's great-great uncle. This is officially different in the TV version, however: Aemon stated back in Season 1 that Aerys II was Aegon V's son, not his grandson, and the TV writers independently confirmed that Jaehaerys II has officially been omitted from the TV continuity. Why this change was made is unclear, though apparently it was to simplify the relationship between Daenerys and Aemon. **Aemon laments that it is terrible for a Targaryen to be alone in the world: for years, he was alone at the Wall and thought the rest of his family had been completely destroyed - so he has an idea of how Daenerys must feel, because she thinks she's the only Targaryen left (as she doesn't know of Aemon). **Aemon mentions that he is "a hundred" years old. While other TV materials describe him as over 100 years old, his exact age in the TV continuity is not confirmed: in the novels he is 102 years old at this point, but time moves more slowly in the TV series and character ages sometimes get shifted around. *Following its first mention last episode, Oldtown (the second largest city in Westeros and nearly the same size as King's Landing) is mentioned again, this time by Samwell Tarly, who specifically explains that The Citadel is located there, the university-like institution which is the headquarters and training facility of the Order of Maesters. It probably has one of the largest, if not the largest, libraries in the known world. **Samwell says that Castle Black's library is relatively small. In the novels, it is actually very well stocked - because the Night's Watch is many centuries old, it is a repository for all sorts of rare manuscripts that they collected over the centuries - such as the rare manuscripts Samwell is reading in this episode. Then again, they are interesting to Samwell because they are rare scouting reports about wildling clans and locally written books - the Night's Watch isn't exactly considered a bastion for higher learning. *Stannis observes that Samwell is the son of Randyll Tarly, who defeated Robert at the Battle of Ashford in Robert's Rebellion - the only battle Robert ever lost. The battle has been previously mentioned in the animated "Histories & Lore" featurettes but not in the main TV series. **Samwell explains to Stannis that he killed a White Walker with a Dragonglass dagger, and Stannis says he knows what it is because they have it back on Dragonstone island. Also in the "Dragonstone (Histories & Lore)" video, Stannis laments that Dragonstone's only abundant resource is in fact dragonglass (obsidian) - because it is a volcanic island. Also in Season 4, Stannis admitted to Tycho Nestoris that Dragonstone does not produce significant enough crops or livestock to sustain a large army. In the Histories & Lore video, Stannis complains that while Dragonstone has a lot of dragonglass, it is apparently useless, given that it is too sharp to be used in construction but too brittle to be used in swords. So, in effect, Stannis just withdrew from the biggest stockpile of known anti-White Walker weapons when he came to the Wall. *Barristan Selmy has died, although he has not died as of the most recently published novel. His wounds last episode were not necessarily fatal, and some characters in the novels have faked their deaths at certain points, but actor Ian McElhinney has publicly stated that his character is dead. *The Grey Worm/Missandei romance subplot continues from last season: it has no counterpart in the novels, because Missandei is only ten years old in the books, but like many other younger characters she was aged-up for the TV series. **Book-Missandei is preternaturally intelligent, however, and becomes a keen advisor to Daenerys - to the point that in the novels, Daenerys does in fact let Missandei formally sit as an advisor on her ruling council, much as she asks for her advice in this TV episode. *Daenerys has had one of her enemies among the old slave-masters burned to death and fed to her dragons. As Emilia Clarke points out in the episodes' behind-the-scenes featurettes, this has shadows of how her own father the Mad King burned his enemies alive. Barristan even directly explained this to Daenerys three episodes ago - though on the other hand, she only burned one as an example to the rest, and then turned around to reopen the fighting pits to try to bring peace to the city, instead of executing all of the slave-masters as Daario suggested. *Old Valyria is seen for the first time, after being mentioned in passing as the ancestral home of House Targaryen many times. The Smoking Sea that they pass through in this episode was formed when the former Valyrian Peninsula was shattered into a chain of large islands by the Doom of Valyria, a massive explosion of the chain of volcanoes known as the Fourteen Fires. In the novels, its appearance is more sinister, with an ominous red glow being projected into the skies above Old Valyria (whether from a still-active volcanoes or some other source, none can say), and waters that are near the boiling point and give off poisonous fumes. The ruins are feared to be haunted by demons and monsters, but few who have ventured into the ruins seeking lost treasures have ever returned - as Jorah says, even pirates are afraid to go there. In the book version, Jorah did not even dare attempt to sail through the Smoking Sea and Valyria was not seen up close: instead he and Tyrion passed by ship around the Valyrian Peninsula, the long way, and Tyrion sees the ominous red glow of Valyria on the horizon. **Stannis mentioned in the preceding episode that "Stone Men" severely afflicted by the Greyscale plague are pushed out to live at the fringes of civilization in the ruins of Old Valyria. In the novels, a large area around the ruins of Chroyane (known known as "The Sorrows"), on the river north of Volantis, is used as essentially a leper-colony for people suffering from Greyscale. There are also vague rumors of men living in the shattered remains of the Valyrian Peninsula, in the ruins of Oros, Tyria, and Old Valyria itself - who might, similarly, be Stone Men pushed to live on the abandoned fringes of civilization - but these rumors are unconfirmed in the novels. **In the books, Tyrion was instead attacked by Stone Men when he was making his way south along the Rhoyne River through the ruins of Chroyane, on his way from Pentos to Volantis. In the TV version his journey mostly just happened off-screen and entirely by land in a wheelhouse with Varys between episodes one and three of Season 5. Chroyane used to be a great city of the Rhoynar, the ancestors of the Dornishmen (ruled by the Martells), who were defeated by the Valyrians, ancestors of the Targaryens. The TV version, ironically, switched this so that the ruins of Valyria are shown as a leper-colony for Stone Men with greyscale, not the city of their rival that they defeated - the defeated Rhoynar believed that greyscale was a curse brought down so that the Valyrians would never be able to occupy the Rhoynar city-states along the river which they had destroyed. Though again, Valyria also ended up in ruins eventually, and may also be used as a dumping ground for people afflicted with greyscale by the time of the novels. *At the end of the episode, Jorah and Tyrion have passed through the Smoking Sea and are on the western shore of Slaver's Bay - Meereen is on the opposite, eastern side of the large bay, though still many hundreds of miles away. Daenerys left Pentos in the Season 1 premiere, and only ended up in Meereen by the Season 4 premiere, but in contrast Tyrion has come very close to Meereen in only about half of one TV season. This is simply because Tyrion is more or less going in the direct and quickest route, while Daenerys passed through many other and much more distant lands before arriving in Meereen by a circuitous journey. Daenerys spent months heading to Vaes Dothrak in Season 1, far to the north and east of Meereen, then in Season 2 passed south through the Red Waste and arrived in Qarth - which is (roughly) twice the distance from Volantis compared to the distance between Volantis and Slaver's Bay. She then headed back west, closer to Pentos, when she went to Slaver's Bay. Daenerys also simply stopped in Vaes Dothrak and then Qarth for months at a time without traveling. In the books : See: Differences between books and TV series - Season 5#Kill_the_Boy * The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Storm of Swords: ** Chapter 78, Samwell V: Stannis recognizes Sam as the one who killed the White Walker and the son of Randyll Tarly, who he considers an able soldier. Stannis recounts how Lord Randyll defeated Robert at Ashford, and says he would not expect such a man to have a son like Sam. Then, discussing how Sam managed to kill a White Walker, Sam tells the king what he has learnt about dragonglass as a weapon against the White Walkers. Stannis retorts there is obsidian in Dragonstone. * The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Feast for Crows: ** Chapter 35, Samwell IV: upon learning about Daenerys's rule in Slaver's Bay from Sam, Aemon worries that she has no family to guide her, and laments that his old age and infirmity makes him useless to her. * The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Dance with Dragons: ** Chapter 7, Jon II: Aemon tells Jon that he will have little joy of his command, but he has the strength to do the things that must be done. He then warns that winter is almost upon them, and that Jon must “kill the boy and let the man be born.” ** Chapter 11, Daenerys II: After the Harpies attack Unsullied, Missandei grieves for her loved one, and Dany is furious. ** Chapter 18, Tyrion V: While sailing through the ruins of an ancient city, Tyrion glimpses a flying creature with leathery wings in the fog. Later, under a ruined bridge, Tyrion’s boat is attacked by Stone Men, and he is dragged down into the water. ** Chapter 21, Jon V: Stannis and his army depart Castle Black and head towards Winterfell. ** Chapter 22, Tyrion VI: Tyrion is saved from the Stone Men by his traveling companion, who is infected with Greyscale. ** Chapter 23, Daenerys IV: Queen Daenerys and Hizdahr zo Loraq betroth in order to secure her hold over Meereen. ** Chapter 32, Reek III: Roose Bolton informs Ramsay that Stannis is marching to meet them in battle at Winterfell. Roose looks back on how he met Ramsay's mother: he met the beautiful wife of a miller, who he hanged, and then he raped her. The woman showed up at the Dreadfort a year later with a baby; Roose would have had the woman whipped and the infant thrown down a well, but he saw the child had his eyes and knew it was truly his, so he decided to keep Ramsay alive. Roose suspects that, if he has a true-born son by Walda, Ramsay will murder him. ** Chapter 33, Tyrion VIII: On their way to Meereen, Tyrion and Jorah sail past Valyria. Tyrion reflects on the Doom of Valyria. ** Chapter 36, Daenerys VI: Daenerys finally agrees to open the fighting pits, to stop the Harpies' attacks. ** Chapter 37, The Prince of Winterfell: Reek is chosen to give away Ramsay’s “Stark” bride to him in their wedding. ** Chapter 39, Jon VIII: Jon discovers that thousands of wildlings have sought refuge in Hardhome, a ruined settlement Beyond the Wall. Jon fears for their lives, but many of his black brothers remain indifferent, so he reminds them that, if thousands of wildlings die beyond the Wall, they will rise up again as wights, swelling the White Walkers’ army. ** Chapter 40, Tyrion IX: Tyrion and Jorah's ship is damaged beyond repair. ** Chapter 53, Jon XI: Jon treats with Tormund, the new leader of the Free Folk, and agrees to let them settle south of the Wall. This is seen as a betrayal to Jon’s vows by many in the Night’s Watch, but Jon argues that he is sworn to defend all the realms of men, which includes the wildlings, and that he will use everything he has against the White Walkers. ** Chapter 69, Jon XIII: Jon decides to lead the rescue mission to Hardhome. References Category:Season 5 Category:Season 5 episodes